**1. Introduction**

Livestock production is the most important source of livelihood for about 120 million pastoralists worldwide [1], which provides draught power for more than 320 million hectares of farmland. Animal enterprise is one of the principal agricultural sub-sectors in Nepal that contributes about 11% to the national gross domestic product (GDP) and 27% to agricultural GDP [2]. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development [3, 4], goat alone contributes about 5% of AGDP. Goats therefore are the indispensable component of livestock in the country with 10.25 million goat population that accounts for 45.3% of the national ruminant population. Goat population has increased by 3.52% per annum from 2012 to 2017 and placed itself as the second largest consumed meat (20.3%) after the buffalo meat [3, 5], which is about 49.2 billion rupees in the national

economy. Being popular as "poor man's cow" or "living cheque," it significantly contributes to food and nutritional and economic security of the marginalized smallholder farmers and provides good employment and self-employment opportunities in the country.

There are four indigenous breeds of goats in Nepal, namely, Chyangra (in mountain), Sinhal (in high hills and low mountains), Khari (in hills and mid hills), and Terai mostly distributed in lower plains. The largest concentration of goats is topographically in the hills (52.2%) and regionally in central development region. Chyangra and Sinhal are the means of livelihood and family nutrition in high hills and mountain ecosystem where there are about 1% Chyangra and 15% Sinhal [3]. The most popular exotic breeds of goats are Boer, Jamnapari, Barbari, and Beetal which are mainly used for crossbreeding and upgrading of indigenous Khari and Terai breeds of goats.

In recent years, indigenous breeds of goats are preferred less by the commercial goat entrepreneurs. The major reason is considered to be the low production and productivity potential of native as compared to other exotic breeds. For five decades, studies are being made on various dynamics of goat production mainly aiming at increasing its production and productivity by improved feeding, breeding, health, and other management practices. With regard to the genetic improvement of goats, selection within the native breeds was popular among the herders in the past years. However, upgrading of the native goats by crossbreeding with the exotic breeds such as Boer and Jamnapari is being commonly practiced by the farmers since few decades expecting significantly increased production and productivity within a short time period.

With the country's entrance into the global market, many great opportunities resulted. It was also soon evident that foreign organizations flooded our country and took advantage of our lack of expertise in global promotion and marketing, since the Nepalese goat AnGR did not have documentation of the evidence of its potential and, therefore, failed effective marketing of its genetic materials. As a consequence, the population of the indigenous AnGR is diminishing drastically. The chapter aims to promote these valuable AnGR and to rectify the situation and to review the existing breeds of Nepalese goats and their breeding systems, challenges, and future way forward to enhance production and productivity of goats through scientific breeding practices.
